ontolog-forum
[Top] [All Lists]

Re: [ontolog-forum] Patent application for using a formal ontology in NL

To: ontolog-forum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
From: "John F. Sowa" <sowa@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Fri, 03 Sep 2010 16:41:18 -0400
Message-id: <4C815D6E.6060908@xxxxxxxxxxx>
On 9/3/2010 4:06 PM, Cameron Ross wrote:
> I wonder how those in commercial enterprises, such as Cycorp, are
> viewing this patent.  Given (what I believe to be) the volume of prior
> art, is this patent a real threat within our community, or is it merely
> a distraction?    (01)

Note that this application is a "continuation" of a previous patent that
had been granted.  If they got it through the patent examiners the first
time, it's quite likely that they could get this one approved with more
claims added.    (02)

Re Cyc:  You should ask them.    (03)

People who don't have much money, such as academic researchers, rarely
get sued.  But companies often use patents to handicap or destroy
competitors.  For some horror stories, see the following talk by
Richard Stallman,    (04)

   http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/stallman-patents.html    (05)

Some people dismiss Stallman as an extremist, but those who get sued
for using prior art that is in the public domain can lose quite a lot
of money in a lawsuit, even when they win.  Note that these "inventors"
assigned their patent to a larger company, which was bought out by
an even larger company.    (06)

John    (07)




_________________________________________________________________
Message Archives: http://ontolog.cim3.net/forum/ontolog-forum/  
Config Subscr: http://ontolog.cim3.net/mailman/listinfo/ontolog-forum/  
Unsubscribe: mailto:ontolog-forum-leave@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Shared Files: http://ontolog.cim3.net/file/
Community Wiki: http://ontolog.cim3.net/wiki/ 
To join: http://ontolog.cim3.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?WikiHomePage#nid1J
To Post: mailto:ontolog-forum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx    (08)

<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>